Why We Need More Tension, Not Less

People are tired.

I hear it everywhere.

There is a weariness we can’t shake.

One lovely women’s event coordinator told me,

“My ladies are stressed and weary. We probably need to hear about hard conversations and racial healing, but we honestly can’t take it. Can you bring us something light and funny?”

I get it.

I’ve experienced it—that fatigue that remains after naps, long nights of sleep, and vacation time. The stress no bath, no break, no app seems to address.

And yet, we continue to nap, even when it’s ineffective against this kind of tired.

We continue to seek escape, even knowing that so far, it hasn’t remedied whatever has drained our resources.

Allow me to suggest that what we need in our lives is increased tension.

Tension has gotten a bad rap lately.

There are situations and conditions that require tension.

Scissors, sails, and stories all need tension to function optimally. Clotheslines and tightropes would fail without tension. So would the function of tendons and ligaments.

The right amount of tension is necessary for opening jars and for functioning cars—all kinds of belts and widgets require tension to work the right way—to be effectual.

So, do we.

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he cited the necessity of increased tension through nonviolent protest in order to bring about effective and lasting justice.

There are systems and processes that require tension to work.

It is a myth that we are held together by constant peace. Jesus holds all things together and sometimes, to do that, He increases the tension.

Ask the Pharisees. They felt it. They heard it.

Much of the weariness we’re feeling has its root, not in actual physical fatigue, but in the discouragement that accompanies ineffectual outcomes of our faith.

So, in this case, the answer isn’t more rest and escape.

It’s to stand and experience increased tension—the kind that leads to effectual ministry.

When my dad had partial-knee replacement surgery, and again when he had spinal surgery, the medical staff had him up and moving almost immediately each time.

It was tense. It was initially exhausting. He needed support.

But it was the right course of action for restoring him to fully functioning health.

If, instead, he’d been encouraged to lie in bed, unmoving, until he felt better, it might have been weeks or months before he saw any progress, if ever.

We must stop encouraging believers to seek refuge in pursuits that aren’t soul-restorative.

We must go to God’s Word and put to practice what we read there.

If we look into the wrong mirror or seek the wrong counselor, we can be misled about the remedy for what ails us.

The only reliable mirror is God’s Word.

We are to seek refuge and rest in Jesus, but sometimes that means speaking out for the truth of racial reconciliation

Or feeling the tension of confronting a brother on abuse

Or going deeper into a relationship at church that was perfectly comfortable with surface interaction but requires more beyond that.

Or asking the hard question.

Or living the gospel before people who outright hate it.

By remaining silent, complacent, comfortable, relentlessly comforted, and safe, we allow muscles of courage and faith to atrophy from misuse.

We can be so movie-streaming minded we’re no earthly good.

We can shelter in place so long, we become spiritually agoraphobic.

The Body of Christ needs to move. To rise up from its comfortable bed and feel the tension of doing the work that leads to effective and restorative healing.

Laughter is a gift from God, but not if it’s an escape.

Rest is a gift, too,

but if we use it as an excuse to avoid the tension of being the church and representing the Jesus whose words created so much tension that they killed Him, then we’re not enjoying Sabbath, we’re hiding.

Want to experience renewed vigor, energy for the work, and restored zeal for Christ?

Pick up your mat and walk in His ways.

It’s time to increase the tension.

If you’re avoiding the tension of hard conversations, I can help.

If you’re interested in making an effective contribution to relationships between people of different skin colors, I can help there, too.

Reach out. Let’s talk. I have books, talks, resources, and support.

It's time to increase the tension. https://t.co/TZ8X3GTwNJ #amwriting #Jesus

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) November 17, 2022